I just saw this latest Priorities USA ad suggesting that Mitt Romney,
through Bain Capital, killed a woman when the firm she worked for went
under and she lost her healthcare benefits and passed away from illness.
Bain is a legitimate issue, so long as facts are respected and truth is
taken seriously. This ad is not merely over the top. It is sickening.
It is despicable. It is unworthy of a sitting president. It is unworthy
of a candidate for president. It is unworthy even of the campaign from
hell we are witnessing. It embarrasses me to be a Democrat that this is
what our party offers to reelect a president after four years in office.
The disgraceful behavior of certain Republicans is no excuse for an ad
like this from Democrats.

I give no comfort to Mitt Romney, his campaign or Republicans. I think many of the Democratic attacks are fair by standards of politics today. But I also think, and have written, that the president should begin to discuss how he would lead the nation in a second term instead of running a campaign that has reached a state of pure, unadulterated negativity. Even if every charge were true — many are; some are not — an incumbent president should be able to offer more to the nation than a perpetual attack against his opponent.

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I cannot find words appropriate to a family newspaper to describe my contempt for the campaigns of both parties. This ad is a new low, after many new lows, in a campaign from hell by both parties that insults the intelligence of all voters.

I have been a supporter of Priorities USA and urged large donors to offer their support. This ad is so far below even the minimal standards of a vile campaign in a poisoned politics of a corrupted system that I would propose that the president issue this public statement:

This new ad represents the fecal remains of what emerges from the eastern end of a horse facing west after an unhealthy meal, and should be thrown in the garbage can, where it belongs.